New Mexico Museum of Space History 4K Planetarium

New Mexico Museum of SPACE HISTORY replaces IMAX theater with

World’s First 4k Laser Fulldome Planetarium Projection System

All photos & video were taken of the SciDome during the performance.

The New Mexico Museum of Space History wanted to update their planetarium theater which had previously been using a dual IMAX projection system. The museum’s goal was to upgrade to a single system that could project a broader diversity of vivid content including star shows & planetarium movies as well as large screen films across their 360-degree, 40-foot dome screen.

The upgrade was led by Spitz Incorporated, the largest supplier of planetariums for education, entertainment, and businesses. The Museum ordered the SciDome 4K Laser Fulldome Planetarium System that included two of Digital Projection’s INSIGHT LASER 4K projectors. Producing a total of 24,000 laser illuminated lumens and an ultra-high 4096 x 4096 pixel resolution, the pair of INSIGHT LASER 4Ks replaced two separate legacy projectors in the museum’s theater with a single solution to handle all dome projection applications.

The combined INSIGHT Laser 4K projectors use purposed built dome lenses and cover 360 degrees of the New Horizons Dome Theater, providing 4K resolution via laser illumination onto the 40-foot SciDome surface. This new system provides higher a resolution to display crisp planetarium star fields and vivid pre-rendered shows. With an illumination system service life of 20,000 hours, the solid-state laser illumination incorporated within the INSIGHT LASER 4K projectors significantly improves system dependability. This new technology eliminates the maintenance costs related to the scheduled replacement of the older arc lamps from the previous projection systems, as well as the time required to replace or deal with downtime & show cancelations caused by unpredictable lamp failures.

Why Digital Projection was chosen

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the SciDome 4K Laser Projection system. The image on our dome is stunning in all the various modes we use the system and is easy to work with. The operation of the new system is MUCH, MUCH easier and far less prone to failure. The projectors & lenses have been very reliable and we haven’t lost any shows because of them, not to mention the costs to operate them are a fraction of what it used to be for the IMAX system (utilities & personnel). It was a great, great choice for us and we’ve been very happy with our decision.”